In response to a consultation call from the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on their Agri-Food 2030 strategy, Feasta has prepared this submission, which calls for “the development of a vibrant rural economy that employs a high percentage of young people, producing a wide variety of high-quality food using agroecological methods that regenerate soil, restore forest diversity, protect water, and provide food security for Ireland, while mitigating climate disruption and restoring biodiversity.”
Download the submission (pdf document, 498K)
Featured image: field on Feasta member Martin Peck’s farm.
This submission on Ireland’s agri-food strategy may also be of interest:
http://www.sustainability.ie/foodsecurityscenarios.html
This short analysis of Irish agriculture’s contribution to Irish food security is intended as a discussion document and deliberately took a radical stance. Feedback is very welcome.
Resources permitting, a follow up study will subject the transport sector to the same level of critical scrutiny, with an alternative scenario to business-as-usual presented.
The aim: to force political institutions to tell the truth: namely that there is no conceivable mechanism by which the Irish government’s stated target of an 80 percent reduction in net GHG emissions by 2050 could be achieved without a complete restructuring of society.
I don’t know if anyone has been reading Jem Bendell (professor of Sustainability Leadership, University of Cumbria) – apologies if this is old news – but Jem’s Deep Adaptation paper on climate collapse is well worth a look. Can be found here:
http://www.sustainability.ie/deepadaptation.pdf
also the accompanying video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAZJtFZZYmM&feature=youtu.be
As Jem says, extinction of our species is no longer something that can be ruled out. So why are we pretending otherwise? Why is there such denial? Why is the discussion focusing on sticking plaster ‘solutions’ while meanwhile the patient is bleeding to death?